Blattner Brunner Buys Sawyer Riley Compton

Blattner Brunner Inc. extended its footprint in the Southeast with the purchase of Atlanta agency Sawyer Riley Compton.

The acquisition yields clients like Dow Chemical, Golf Pride, Bernhardt Furniture and Edge Flooring from an agency with billings of $25 million. Sawyer Riley's staff of about 20 people will join Blattner Brunner, swelling its rolls to 165 and taking the combined agency billings to $165 million.

"We can wrap around their clients services they don't have," said Michael Brunner, president/CEO of Blattner Brunner, Pittsburgh. "That's quite a number of services because in the past they'd use quite a few external resources.

"Secondly, I look at Atlanta as being the gateway to the Southeast. Third, we have a one-profit-center business model. We work collaboratively between our offices. What that means is that we're able to pull resources from one office to help an account in another office."

Financial terms were not disclosed. Sawyer Riley chairman Frank Compton and co-founder Louis Sawyer will serve as joint managing directors reporting to Blattner Brunner executive vice president Scott Morgan. The Atlanta office will operate as Blattner Brunner/SRC for a year before losing its acronym.

Blattner Brunner now has offices in Pittsburgh, Washington and Atlanta. Excluding Sawyer Riley clients, accounts include GlaxoSmithKline, Del Monte, Zippo Manufacturing, Time Warner Cable and AARP. The agency specializes in all marketing, including direct.

"What we're in the market to do right now is to get Sawyer Riley integrated with the agency and up and running as quickly as possible," Brunner said.

Mickey Alam Khan covers Internet marketing campaigns and e-commerce, agency news as well as circulation for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters